Transit Police Undermined By a Lack of Accountability

By TODD S. PURDUM

Published: December 5, 1987

Behind the reports of false arrests by some New York City transit police officers, many experts say, is a major agency accountable to no one, short of supervisors and plagued by persistent morale problems.

The allegations are the latest in a series of controversies that have dogged the transit police for much of the last 10 years and have renewed one of the oldest debates in local law enforcement: should New York have a single police force, or at least a transit force responsible to a single person?

About the sole fact agreed on by most of the people who follow the problem is that the existing arrangement is unsatisfactory and may have even helped lead to the new controversies. For years, the chief of the transit police has reported to the Transit Authority president on policy and the City Police Commissioner on operations. But the difference has seldom been clear. Leaders Unaware of Investigation

''When everyone is accountable, no one is accountable,'' Robert R. Kiley, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, parent of the transit system, said at a board meeting yesterday.

''The current situation is an unworkable one,'' an M.T.A. spokesman, John Cunningham, said. ''That may very well be one of the problems that engendered these other situations.''

Both Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward and the president of the Transit Authority, David L. Gunn, have said they had been unaware that an internal investigation had found that officers lied about false arrests in 1983 and 1984 until learning about the cases last month from news organizations.

Transit commanders ordered the internal report filed, and the officers were never disciplined. Investigators from a joint Federal, state and city inquiry are also looking into allegations that officers in the elite decoy unit of the force made improper arrests this year.

The controversy highlights the unusual political and organizational problems of a 4,000-member force that ranks as the sixth largest police department in the nation, yet is dwarfed by the 29,000-member City Police Department.

The city pays the entire cost of the transit force. But any merger must be approved by the M.T.A. board, whose members are appointed by the Governor.

The Koch administration has sensed in the scandals an opportunity to revive its plan to merge the two forces. But Governor Cuomo, whose opposition last year effectively defeated a merger, has shown no signs of changing his mind.

Although a survey published in 1985 showed 72 percent of the transit officers favored a merger, their union leader, William McKechnie, remains resolutely against consolidation. A longtime political supporter of Mr. Cuomo who is credited by many political experts with persuading the Governor to oppose the Koch plan, Mr. McKechnie argues a merger would result in diminished protection in the subways.

Despite the general dissatisfaction, almost nothing has happened to change the status quo since a deadlocked M.T.A. board tabled the merger in June 1986.

The last chief of the transit police, James B. Meehan, resigned last February, 10 days after the release of a report criticizing his handling of the case of Michael Stewart, who died after a violent arrest by transit officers for writing graffiti in 1983. No permanent replacement has been named.

Instead, a longtime commander, Vincent DelCastillo, was appointed Acting Chief. Mr. Gunn and Mr. Ward could not agree on the terms for giving Mr. DelCastillo the job permanently, and few other candidates were interested in the post, largely because the issue of ultimate command was unresolved.

''Justice Brandeis once said that it's more important that the law be settled than that it be settled right,'' said Thomas Reppetto, president of the Citizens Crime Commission and a supporter of merger. ''If they won't merge, I wish they'd tell me who's in charge. And it can't be the chief of the transit police, because he's just not high enough in the pecking order that the buck will stop there.'' Call for More Responsibility

Mr. Reppetto said the ''only two logical people'' to head the force were Mr. Ward and Mr. Gunn.

''The Police Commissioner,'' Mr. Repetto said, ''is a professional in law enforcement, and the president of the Transit Authority is not a professional in law enforcement. And, indeed, it's rumored that there are still a few problems running the subways and buses in this town.''

Laura D. Blackburne, an M.T.A board member who has often criticized the transit force but opposes a merger, said Mr. Kiley and Mr. Gunn had to take more responsibility for directing the transit police. She favors consolidating the force with the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road police, all under control of the M.T.A.

''They act like they don't give a damn most of the time,'' Ms. Blackburne said of Mr. Kiley and Mr. Gunn. ''Have you ever heard them assert any responsibility over the transit police? So the public, as far as they're concerned, doesn't have a sense that the M.T.A. does anything about the transit police.'' Problems in Supervision